Two Kansas moms who vanished over the weekend, leaving their car abandoned on the side of the road, are suspected to be victims of "foul play," authorities confirmed.
Veronica Butler, 27, and Jillian Kelley, 39, were traveling from their hometown of Hugoton, Kansas, to pick up Butler's kids in rural Oklahoma when they disappeared.
Police found their vehicle ditched on a roadside in Elkhart, Kansas – about 30 miles outside of Hugoton – Saturday, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
"Based on the information obtained from the victim's vehicle, our investigators believe there was evidence to indicate foul play," the OSBI said in a statement Wednesday.
The agency did not elaborate, but confirmed no arrests have been made and the women remain missing.
"There's every reason to believe that they could be in danger," OSBI spokesperson Hunter McKee said, according to ABC News. "It was a very rural area. They're nowhere to be found... the fact that we've had no contact with them for this long."
Former FBI Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer also spoke to the ruralness of the area and the challenges it is likely presenting to investigators.
"I grew up in Kansas," Coffindaffer told NewsNation Wednesday. "We always teased that the national tree was the telephone pole. There is nothing there. That's going to limit the capabilities of digital analysis of their cell phones."
Butler was reportedly in the midst of a custody battle with her ex, and Kelley – the wife of a pastor – may have been accompanying Butler to act as a mediator when picking up her kids
The children may have been living with their paternal grandmother at the time.
